"Ages of Empires II: The Conquerors" is an Ages of Empires expansion that lets you digitally fight historical battles from the POV of everything from a swarm of Huns to Erik the Red’s Viking horde. Some ancient wizardry has transformed that into a fully playable Middle-earth conversion. Tolkien’s mythical realm has taken six years to fully realize in AoE, but it’s worth it. Because Balrogs.

Video of LORD OF THE RINGS IN AGE OF EMPIRES 2 MOD

This mod encompasses 18 full regions of Middle-earth with their own visuals -- meaning you can actually recreate all the battles from LOTR on maps straight out of Tolkien lore. Think hundreds of new and incredibly detailed units with over a hundred new building graphics, new terrain graphics, and magical objects. Meaning, you can now shoot arrows from the fortress of Helm’s Deep, or go head-on against everything crawling out of Dol Guldur in the ultimate showdown at Pelennor Fields.

It gets better. Build armies of Elven archers from Lothlórien, Rangers of the North, Men of the West, Rohirrim, Haradrim, and Easterlings. Villain types can command Sauron’s forces of Orcs, trolls, Wargs, hulking Mûmakil, dread Nazgûl, and fire-breathing Balrogs to tear everything down with crude weapons and fire. You can blow the horn of Gondor or harness the evil of Mordor.

No, really, you can blow the horn of Gondor. And the Horn of Helm Hammerhand. Just listen.

The AI also allows your villagers to automatically build certain structures, depending on who you’re playing as, though the Rohirrim should be building not just any castle, but the Hornburg.

Even if the Nazgûl in this mod aren’t on horseback, which might make them slightly less intimidating if you’re taller than a Hobbit, most of the game is dead-on when you consider The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books and films. Clashes of armies are just as enormous as you imagined them when you first read The Two Towers. Perils lurk everywhere. The different realms are recognizable from the films, right down to Sauron’s eye.

Because you know you secretly want to play as Dol Guldur after a righteous fight as Gondor, journey here to download.